Display omitted •Screen-printed gold electrodes for fuel bioethanol analysis.•Stripping voltammetric determination of Pb, Cu and Hg in fuel bioethanol.•Routine and on-site determination of metals in fuel bioethanol.•Promising applications of screen-printed electrodes for fuel analysis. The potential application of commercial screen-printed gold electrodes (SPGEs) for the trace determination of lead, copper, and mercury in fuel bioethanol is demonstrated. Samples were simply diluted in 0.067molL−1 HCl solution prior to square-wave anodic stripping voltammetry (SWASV) measurements recorded with a portable potentiostat. The proposed method presented a low detection limit (<2μgL−1) for a 240s deposition time, linear range between 5 and 300μgL−1, and adequate recovery values (96–104%) for spiked samples. This analytical method shows great promise for on-site trace metal determination in fuel bioethanol once there is no requirement for sample treatment or electrode modification.